Well hello there!
My name's Elisha and I'm an Engineer.
I'm here to talk about
innovation, technology and the environment!
Way back in 1804, a pioneering engineer from Cornwall
- Richard Trevithick - designed the first steam-powered locomotive
just to settle a bet!
Did you know,
that in 1847 all railway stations
across the country adopted Greenwich Mean Time, known as GMT -
this was before many towns and cities?
By 1855, about 98% of England and Wales ran on ‘Railway Time’!
In the 1900s,
more and more people began living in the outskirts of cities
and their local electric trains were able to stop
and start much more easily than steam trains.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s
and Transport for London's Oyster card
became one of the first examples of contactless payment in Europe.
Now contactless is everywhere!
And just ten years ago,
the first battery-powered train
to run on the railway in over 50 years
won best "cross industry project"
at the 2015 Railway Industry Innovation Awards!
As you can see, innovation and technology
has changed a lot on the railway over the past two centuries!
If you'd like to find out more about how we're marking
200 years of passenger rail travel,
visit railway200.co.uk